This article on the T. S. Eliot Prize was first published on the Poetry Book Society website in 2012.
The Poetry Book Society is pleased to announce the Shortlist for the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry 2012.
Judges Carol Ann Duffy (Chair), Michael Longley and David Morley have chosen six collections from the 131 books submitted by publishers, which join the four Poetry Book Society Choices to make up the ten collections on the shortlist:
Simon Armitage – The Death of King Arthur (Faber & Faber)
Sean Borodale – Bee Journal (Cape Poetry)
Gillian Clarke – Ice (Carcanet Press)
Julia Copus – The World’s Two Smallest Humans (Faber & Faber)
Paul Farley – The Dark Film (Picador Poetry)
Jorie Graham – P L A C E (Carcanet Press)
Kathleen Jamie – The Overhaul (Picador Poetry)
Sharon Olds – Stag’s Leap (Cape Poetry)
Jacob Polley – The Havocs (Picador Poetry)
Deryn Rees-Jones – Burying the Wren (Seren)
Chair Carol Ann Duffy said:
In a year which saw a record number of submissions, my fellow judges and I are delighted with a shortlist which sparkles with energy, passion and freshness and which demonstrates the range and variety of poetry being published in the UK.
The T. S. Eliot Prize Readings
The T. S. Eliot Prize Readings will take place on Sunday 13 January 2013 in Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London. The 2010 Readings were held in this new venue for the first time and were a great artistic and audience-building success, attracting 2,000 poetry lovers, one of the biggest audiences for a single poetry event of recent times.
The T. S. Eliot Award Ceremony
The winner of the 2012 Prize will be announced at the Award Ceremony on Monday 14 January 2013, when the winner will be presented with a cheque for £15,000, donated by Mrs Valerie Eliot, who has generously given the prize money since the inception of the Prize. The shortlisted poets will each receive £1,000.
The T. S. Eliot Prize Reading Groups scheme will enable reading groups and individual readers to read the shortlist. Specially commissioned reading group notes, together with three poems from each shortlisted collection, will be made available to download from the Poetry Book Society website. The scheme will target both poetry reading groups and fiction book groups.
The T. S. Eliot Prize Shadowing Scheme, run by the Poetry Book Society in partnership with the English and Media Centre’s emagazine, will offer A Level students a chance to engage with the latest new poetry by shadowing the judges and taking part in a writing competition. Find out more here.
The Prize is generously supported by the T. S. Eliot estate. This year marks the second year of generous three-year support from Aurum, a private investment management firm which manages funds for charities, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and private individuals, and which supports a range of charities.
This article has been republished to provide a fuller picture of the T. S. Eliot Prize history. The Poetry Book Society ran the T. S. Eliot Prize until 2016, when the T. S. Eliot Foundation took over the Prize, the estate having supported it since its inception.
